Strong variability of Martian water ice clouds during dust storms revealed from ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter/NOMAD

TL;DR

This study uses NOMAD/TGO observations to analyze the variability, vertical structure, and microphysical properties of Martian water ice clouds during dust storms, revealing significant changes in altitude, particle size, and asymmetry related to dust activity.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the mesospheric water ice clouds on Mars, especially their response to dust storms and the diurnal and seasonal variations, using detailed remote sensing data.

Findings

Water ice clouds rose from 45 to 80 km altitude after dust storms.

Strong dawn-dusk asymmetry in water ice abundance was observed.

Water ice particle sizes vary sharply with altitude and differ between dust storm types.

Abstract

Observations of water ice clouds and aerosols on Mars can provide important insights into the complexity of the water cycle. Recent observations have indicated an important link between dust activity and the water cycle, as intense dust activity can significantly raise the hygropause, and subsequently increase the escape of water after dissociation in the upper atmosphere. Here present observations from NOMAD/TGO that investigate the variation of water ice clouds in the perihelion season of Mars Year 34 (April 2018-19), their diurnal and seasonal behavior, and the vertical structure and microphysical properties of water ice and dust. These observations reveal the recurrent presence of a layer of mesospheric water ice clouds subsequent to the 2018 Global Dust Storm. We show that this layer rose from 45 to 80 km in altitude on a timescale of days from heating in the lower atmosphere due to the storm. In addition, we demonstrate that there is a strong dawn dusk asymmetry in water ice abundance, related to nighttime nucleation and subsequent daytime sublimation. Water ice particle sizes are retrieved consistently and exhibit sharp vertical gradients (from 0.1 to 4.0 um), as well as mesospheric differences between the Global Dust Storm (<0.5 um) and the 2019 regional dust storm (1.0 um), which suggests differing water ice nucleation efficiencies. These results form the basis to advance our understanding of mesospheric water ice clouds on Mars, and further constrain the interactions between water ice and dust in the middle atmosphere.